The Simon Wiesenthal Center urged Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez to personally intervene against anti-Semitic attacks on his opposition leader and challenger in the upcoming October Presidential elections, Henrique Capriles Radonski.

An article entitled “The enemy is Zionism: a loser as a promise,” published on the Venezuelan National Radio website, introduces Capriles Radonski as “a descendent from a Sephardic family in Curaçao, on his father’s side, and from a Polish-Russian Ashkenazi family [who escaped from Nazism and found refuge in Venezuela], from his mother’s” (http://www.rnv.gov.ve/noticias/?act=ST&f=15&t=176836). Despite these Jewish roots, Capriles Radonski practices Catholicism.

The text’s intent is to disqualify Capriles Radonski candidacy due to his Jewish origin, disguised in the language of “anti-Zionism”. Its author, Adal Hernández, describes Zionism as “the ideology of terror, representing the most repulsive features of humanity; its alleged patriotic intentions are based on a greed which fulfills the logic that ‘every nationalism without a homeland is an initiative of conquest’”. The article summons up conspiracy theories and concludes stating that “this is our enemy, Zionism, represented by Capriles Radonski, who has a platform opposed to our national and independent interests. Next October there will be two choices for Venezuela, the Bolivarian Revolution (…) or international Zionism, which threatens to destroy our planet.”

In a letter to President Chavez, Dr. Shimon Samuels (Director for International Relations of the Wiesenthal Center) and Sergio Widder (Director for Latin America) noted that “the use of anti-Semitism as a political tool impugns democracy and violates the Costa do Sauipe Declaration against antisemitism and all forms of racism, co-signed by you and your colleagues Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2008), as well as the Declaration against Antisemitism proposed by our Center and adopted by the PARLATINO (Latin American Parliament) in December, 2011.”

“We urge President Chávez to put an end to this campaign that will surely become more threatening as the elections date approaches. Chávez carries the ultimate responsibility for his own media outlets and can personally stop their hatemongering, in this case, by publically condemning and disciplining Venezuelan National Radio and ordering its Director to issue a public apology to Capriles Radonski and the Jewish people for its antisemitic remarks,” stated Samuels.

“Indeed, President Chavez is the only one in a position to stop these antisemitic attacks. His failure to respond effectively would be an endorsement and encouragement of racism,” added Widder.

For further information, contact Dr. Shimon Samuels at +336 09770158, or Sergio Widder at +54911 4425-1306, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400.000 members. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the OAS and the Latin American Parliament.